China's sports industry unleashes potential in the past decade

BEIJING -- Exemplified by sports manufacturing and tourism, China's sports industry has experienced rapid growth over the past decade.

In July, top-tier international cycling team Astana Qazaqstan announced that it had reached a five-year investment agreement with Shenzhen Xidesheng Bicycle, making Xidesheng the first Chinese cycling company to appear in the UCI World Tour.

Xidesheng, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Shenzhen, serves as a prime example of China's manufacturing companies expanding into the international market amid the rapid growth of the country's sports industry.

Due to crowded urban environments and a lack of venues, Xidesheng could previously only hold races within its factories. In 2012, the firm built an international comprehensive cycling training base with a total track length of six kilometers, representing the first mountain bike track in Guangdong to meet UCI standards.

With continuous government support and an improving business environment, Xidesheng has increased its investments to seek commercial opportunities, sponsoring China's national mountain bike team at two consecutive Olympic Games.

"After the success of the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, we hope to continue working with the national team at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics," said Lin Jing, assistant to the general manager of Xidesheng.

In 2016, Shenzhen issued measures to promote the development of the sports industry, with a goal for the added value of the sports industry to account for 1.2 percent of the city's GDP by 2020. That figure reached 1.5 percent in 2020 and rose to 2.27 percent in 2023.

"Our output value maintained a stable growth last year, and it is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in 2025. We have approximately 13,000 employees worldwide, and one-fifth of our factories are overseas," said Lin.

While Shenzhen demonstrates the strength of manufacturing, central and western Chinese provinces are striving to develop sports tourism based on cultural and environmental characteristics.

On Sept 26, the 2024 EcoRally Cup (China) took place in Hefei's Luogang Park in Anhui province, marking the first time the tournament was held in Asia.

Shangri-La, a tourist attraction in Southwest China's Yunnan province, was depicted as a mysterious valley hidden in the Himalayas in the novel "Lost Horizon" by British author James Hilton in the 1930s.

Now, nearly a century later, this scenic place is experiencing new changes. At the 2024 China Outdoor Sports Industry Conference, Yunnan announced plans to create a "Grand Shangri-La" for outdoor sports by integrating the sports and tourism resources of Dali, Lijiang, Diqing and Nujiang to establish a comprehensive outdoor sports experience zone.

In recent years, Yunnan has continuously tapped the potential of outdoor sports. So far, it has built more than 11,200 kilometers of fitness trails and 81 outdoor sports boutique camps. In 2023, the total scale of Yunnan's sports and related industries reached 64.5 billion yuan, up 41 percent compared to 2022.

"Outdoor sports are the best demonstration of Yunnan's landscapes," said Yang Yang, vice-governor of Yunnan.